Critical Reflection 1
WHAT? How is Service-Learning different from volunteering? Please reference the chapter(s) from Service-Learning: A Movement’s Pioneers and use quotes to support your response.
The way in which service-learning differs from volunteerism is based upon the fact that service-learning builds its foundation on a deeper understanding of community and commitment. Opportunities presented by service-learning classes are not limited to the organizations or agencies that students serve, but additionally includes “the opportunity for deep reflection on the meaning of these (service-learning) experiences”. More often than not, service-learning is a long-term commitment of service for a certain community or group of people, at least a longer commitment than volunteering. Volunteering does not require students to be reflective or dig beneath the surface of their work. Simply put, volunteering is generally short-term; hours students rack up in order to meet a quota.
The lack of a better understanding of the community, in other words, the lack of cultural humility is what makes volunteering short-term and skin-deep. It is not to say that volunteering is bad. With the right mindset and passion, volunteering can be a great outlet to help the community. However, helping to distribute canned goods at a food bank will only expose students to a community that they’ve never experienced or have come face-to-face with before. Because of this, they fail to grasp the concept that underlying systemic or socioeconomic issues are what led to this outcome in the first place. This failure of learning and failure of integrating oneself in a community can lead to stereotyping or even racism.
The same case can apply to service-learning as well, though spending time with a community on a consistent basis will have students more invested in their respective communities. They will be able to learn the stories behind the names, the meanings behind the lives. The will be able “to see the family’s lives at the informal times — the times when they were not guarded”. They will be able to learn “the cuisine, the cooking” and be more “involved with social events.” The more time spent serving communities will aid students to develop their sense of cultural humility, which makes service-learning all the more valuable.
SO WHAT? How do you understand your own role in the community this semester? Please reference, with specific quotes, Remen’s and Illich’s articles to help articulate where you stand on understanding your community role. If you have taken SL-designated courses before, you can also talk about how your understanding of your own position in the community has evolved.
Coming into Dominican as freshman, I’ve never taken a service-learning course before. I was familiar with volunteering but soon found out that service-learning and volunteering are two separate entities. The role in the community I will be taking on this semester will be a stronger one, though not in the sense of how impactful my job will be. Service-learning will allow me to learn about the lives of people unlike me. It will allow me to explore communities and people of my community that I would have never been able to interact with otherwise.
The goal in this semester is to serve rather than help. After reading the article “To Hell with Good Intentions” by Ivan Illich, I’ve discovered that some people do not wish to be on the receiving end of another’s help. They see it as pity and puts extra emphasis on the power imbalance between the two parties. The barricade that sections off what helpers see as weak from the helpers themselves, who they see as strong and this is how Naomi Remen defines the word help almost exactly. “When you help,” she says, “you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken” (Remen). Division usually suggests a lack of communication between groups and a lack of cultural humility. I can understand why the Illich is so passionately against Americans taking mission or volunteering trips in Latin America. American students generally believe that Latin America is a poorer, more undeveloped society that needs to be helped by Americans and Americans alone. However, they will never understand the community they serve because they “cannot even meet the majority which (they) pretend to serve in Latin America — even if you could speak their language, which most of (them) cannot” (Illich). The frustration derives from the intentions of people who volunteer in order to help without learning or appreciating culture. They are there to start and finish a task, to spread the American idea of democracy and American technology, which does not sound that far off of the ideology of early 20th century imperialists.
NOW WHAT? Please read through the SL Program Learning Outcomes and Rubric document. Is there an outcome or concept (or maybe several) that you are especially interested in focusing on this semester? Why?
I’m interested in focusing on applying what I learn to social contexts as well as reflecting on the root causes of systemic social and environmental issues. These are skills that I can take away and apply to my life’s practices far down the future. It’s important to me to become an aware and socially responsible person. I do not want to solely rely on second-hand information to shape my perceptions and views of imminent issues. I want to be able to shape my own views based on knowledge that I’ve acquired through service. I want to be able to critically reflect on concepts that will allow me to apply my experiences to a bigger world than my own.
